The book addresses the scientific debates on Rembrandt, Metsu, Vermeer, and Hoogstraten that are currently taking place in art history and cultural studies. These focus mainly on the representation of gender difference, the relationship between text and image, and the emotional discourse. They are also an appeal for art history as a form of cultural studies that analyses the semantic potential of art within discursive and social contemporary practices. Dutch painting of the seventeenth century reflects its relationship to visible reality. It deals with ambiguities and contradictions. As an avant-garde artistic media, it also contributes to the emergence of a subjectivity towards the modern “bourgeois”. It discards subject matter from its traditional fixation with iconology and evokes different imaginations and semantizations - aspects that have not been sufficiently taken into account in previous research. The book is to be understood as an appeal for art history as a form of cultural science that analyses the semantic potential of art within discursive and social contemporary practices, and, at the same time, demonstrates its relevance today. Works by Rembrandt, Metsu, Vermeer, Hoogstraten, and others serve as exemplary case studies for addressing current debates in art history and cultural studies, such as representation of gender difference, relationship between text and image, and emotional discourse.

The Tugendhat House in Brno, the Czech Republic, was planned and built by Mies van der Rohe from 1928 to 1930, and is universally regarded not only as one of his masterpieces, but also as one of the most important buildings of European Modern architecture. This monograph on the Tugendhat House presents previously unpublished photographs belonging to the Tugendhat family, showing the house as it was when it was first inhabited. A representative collection of plans and drawings from Mies van der Rohe's atelier are also presented here for the first time. Carefully reproduced photographs of the original furniture in the family's possession, many of which have never been shown, are also included. Essays by Wolf Tegethoff, Franz Schulze, and Ivo Hammer give a detailed analysis of the significance of the Tugendhat House in the context of Mies's oeuvre.

The Tugendhat House in Brno (Czech Republic) was named by UNESCO in 2001 as one of the most important buildings of modern architecture and as a World Heritage Site. Mies van der Rohe designed and built it in 1928-1930 and it is beyond any doubt one of the pinnacles in his career. Based on the monograph of 1998 (in English: 2000) the authors describe the complex aspects of this house: personal, historical, art historical, architecture theoretical and restoration scientific ones. Most recent additions include personal reminiscences, photography experiments by Fritz Tugendhat and previously unpublished footage from the family mansion, the house's history after 1997, the conservation of scientifically important materiality of the house and comments on the methodology and techniques of restoration in 2010-2012.

The Borrowed Gaze/Variations GTB', a series of paintings created by Karin Hanssen, reappropriates the female Rückenfigur (back figure) of the famous work Paternal Admonition (1654) of Gerard ter Borch. Almost identical replications of ter Borch's paradigmatic image of a woman in a satin dress circulated on the market already in the 17th century. Today, in the era of technical reproduction and digital simulation, this practice acquires new relevance. By transferring the image to the here and now, and by producing new variations, the art of Karin Hanssen critically examines concepts of authorship and appropriation. Moreover, her extensive replication also fundamentally alters the status of ter Borch's image. The tension between old and new more specifically creates the background against which the iconic woman from the past truly comes alive, for the first time displaying the complexity of her individual identity.

Built and designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1928–1930, the Tugendhat House in Brno / Czech Republic is one of the most significant buildings of European modernism. In 2001, UNESCO added the house to the List of World Cultural Heritage Sites. In this third, updated edition, the authors give personal and historic insights relating to the house; also documenting aspects pertaining to art history and conservation-science studies. The comprehensive description and in-depth discussion of the materials used is a special feature in this field of research. The appeal of this monograph lies in the publication of photographs from the family archive which, for the first time, show the house in its lived-in condition. The experimental artistic color photographs by Fritz Tugendhat are among the pioneering achievements of amateur photography.

Kunst kann Unsichtbares und Unbewusstes sichtbar machen, etwa durch das Motiv des Spiegels. Umgekehrt aber verfugt sie auch uber die Moglichkeit, Objekte und Menschen unsichtbar zu machen, sie aus dem Bild und damit aus unserem Bewusstsein verschwinden zu lassen. Noch immer gilt die hollandische Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts als Paradigma einer Kunst, deren Ziel eine moglichst getreue Abbildung naturlicher und gesellschaftlicher Wirklichkeit sowie die Beschreibung optischer Phanomene ist. Dass auch diese Kunst sich der beiden gegensatzlichen Visualisierungsstrategien bediente, veranschaulicht Daniela Hammer- Tugendhat in ihrem Buch. In genauen Analysen exemplarischer Werke von Rembrandt, Metsu, Vermeer und Hoogstraten, verbunden mit methodischen Reflexionen zu aktuellen kunst- und kulturwissenschaftlichen Debatten, zur Reprasentation von Geschlechterdifferenz, der Text-Bild-Diskussion und des gegenwartigen Affektdiskurses, wird deutlich, dass die Werke ihr Verhaltnis zur sichtbaren Wirklichkeit reflektieren und dass sie eigene Bedeutungen produzieren.

Das Haus Tugendhat in Brünn (Tschechische Republik), von Ludwig Mies van der Rohe 1928–1930 geplant und gebaut, gilt unbestritten als einer der wichtigsten Bauten der europäischen Moderne. 2001 erklärte die UNESCO das Haus zum Welterbe der Kultur. In dieser dritten, aktualisierten Auflage beschreiben die Autoren private, historische, architekturtheoretische, kunsthistorische und konservierungswissenschaftliche Aspekte des Hauses. Die umfangreiche Beschreibung der Materialität bzw. die eingehende Diskussion dieses Aspekts ist eine Besonderheit in der Forschungslandschaft. Ein besonderer Reiz dieser Monografie liegt in der Veröffentlichung von Fotos aus dem Familienbesitz, die das Haus erstmals in bewohntem Zustand zeigen. Die experimentellen künstlerischen Farbfotografien von Fritz Tugendhat gehören zu den Pionierleistungen privat ausgeübter Fototechnik.